Name
- Soren Age- Teen Where do you live? - DFW, Texas What illnesses (Mental or Physical) do you have? - I have Major Depressive Disorder (Severe, Reoccurring), Anxiety, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I'm also Autistic and ADHD, though I would consider those a part of my neurology rather than mental illness. Regarding my physiology, I have patello-femoral pain syndrome, which occasionally affects my mobility. When were you diagnosed as Autistic? - I was officially diagnosed as Autistic last summer, though I had self-diagnosed for many months before. I think that me being Autistic was overlooked for a number of reasons, particularly because I am AFAB (assigned female at birth) and had already been diagnosed as ADHD at 6. How does being Autistic affect your every day life? - Because being Autistic is a part of my neurology, it affects everything I do. I'm particularly talkative on some days and super quiet on others because I'm Autistic; I spend hours looking up obscure information that only I care about because I'm Autistic; and I tear off all the tags on my shirts and shoes and pants because I'm Autistic. These are just a few examples out of many, but I think that it's important to realize that my neurology is who I am and how I experience the world. Sure, I might have to take breaks where allistic people wouldn't, and I can spend hours trying to find that one perfect word to match the specific meaning I have in mind... but neither of those things are objectively bad. Society is what limits my "ability", not my neurotype. If I were to change the ways that being autistic affects me, I would not be the same person. Are there any items or techniques that you use to keep your symptoms under control? - Many Autistic people, myself included, "mask" in order to present a more attractive front to society. This doesn't mean that we are any less Autistic; it's just that we are repressing our nature in order to appease social expectations. Personally, I don't try to redirect my behaviors unless they are harmful to myself or to others. Masking is something that I'm learning to "un-learn", because acting in a way that you're not wired to act is, at minimum, exhausting. Stimming is how Autistic people regulate sensory input-- when that is taken away from us, our most important "technique" ceases to exist. What is something you wish neurotypical people understood about being Autistic? - I wish neurotypical people would understand that Autistic people aren't puzzles that need to be solved. We aren't burdens or part of a larger "epidemic", and speaking up for ourselves doesn't make us too "high-functioning" to have an opinion. Autism is a spectrum like the color spectrum, not the number spectrum; in this, there is no "high" end or "low" end, because no two people's experiences are the same. What advice do you have for someone newly diagnosed as Autistic? - First: Don't think of yourself any differently than you did before your diagnosis. YOU haven't changed, only your label. Second: Seek out community. There are people out there who understand what it's like to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world, and their perspectives will add to your own in insurmountable ways. |
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